For decades, getting decent healthcare in Nigeria, especially in local communities, has felt like a constant struggle, especially at the grassroots level. Primary healthcare centres, the first and often only point of contact for millions of underserved Nigerians, are hampered by poor infrastructure, weak financial systems, and minimal technological integration.
Yet, amid these systemic issues lies an extraordinary story of innovation and transformation powered by Pay1One, a pioneering health-tech platform on a mission to reimagine how public healthcare is accessed, financed, and managed.
In Q1 2025, Pay1One expanded its impact and reach across the health sector through strategic private-public partnerships. During that quarter, the health-tech platform entered a landmark partnership with the Oyo State Government to overhaul its primary healthcare system.
This collaboration marks a bold step forward in integrating technology into the public sector, blending the government’s provision of essential medicines with Pay1One’s cutting-edge financial management and revenue tracking tools.
The advances in private-public partnerships also extended to top tertiary healthcare actors, including University College Hospital, Ibadan (UCH), and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
The outcome? A more transparent, accountable, and sustainable healthcare model that directly impacts millions of Nigerians at the bottom of the economic pyramid. For the government, it means real-time data to drive smarter policy decisions, improved resource allocation, and reduced financial leakages.
For citizens, especially those in underserved communities, it translates to more consistent delivery of essential medicines, shorter waiting times, and greater trust in the system. As transparency and data-driven accountability grow, so too does the likelihood that government actors will respond more effectively to the true needs of the people, leading to a stronger, more equitable healthcare system for all.
A game-changing partnership for public health
At the core of this initiative lies a simple but powerful idea: sustainability in public healthcare can only be achieved when revenue is tracked, leakage is eliminated, and data drives decision-making.
Under the new partnership, the Oyo State Government supplies essential drugs and services to primary health centres. Pay1One, in turn, deploys the technology infrastructure to capture payments, monitor revenue flows, and ensure that funds are transparently managed.
For millions of low-income Nigerians, quality healthcare and essential medicines, once unaffordable or unavailable—are now within reach. By digitizing payments and reducing leakages in the system, Pay1One ensures that government subsidies and donor funds reach the intended beneficiaries without diversion.
This efficiency allows clinics to operate sustainably without inflating costs for patients. In turn, the government can better track its investments, recover revenue, and reinvest it into the healthcare system, creating a transparent, affordable, and self-sustaining model for long-term impact.
“We are creating a sustainable loop,” says Adedamola Bowale, Co-Founder and Technical Lead at Pay1One. “By enabling state governments to see where funds are going and how services are used, we empower them to make data-driven decisions that directly benefit the people.”
More than just numbers: Real impact
Since its launch in 2019, Pay1One has digitised and optimised financial processes across more than 178 public healthcare institutions in Nigeria, including teaching hospitals, general hospitals, and primary health centres. To date, the platform has processed over $25 million in healthcare transactions and improved healthcare access for over 2 million users.
Beyond these numbers lies a deeper impact. Pay1One is fundamentally shifting how healthcare is experienced. Patients no longer have to navigate unclear payment systems or face the uncertainty of unavailable drugs.
Healthcare providers are better equipped to do their jobs efficiently, while governments can finally see the big picture, allowing them to plan more effectively.
What makes this journey particularly compelling is the bootstrapped, homegrown nature of the solution. Built from a deep understanding of Nigeria’s healthcare challenges, Pay1One is a typical example of how African innovators are creating solutions that are perfectly suited to their context, designed to grow, and built to last.
The visionary behind the code
Central to this revolution is Adedamola Bowale, a data professional whose background in business intelligence and software engineering has been critical to Pay1One’s success.
As Technical Lead and Co-Founder, Adedamola was instrumental in building the platform’s real-time analytics dashboard, which provides health administrators with actionable insights into revenue flows, service delivery, and financial performance.
His contributions go beyond technology. Adedamola brings a rare blend of entrepreneurial grit and technical depth, qualities that earned him the Business Intelligence Mastery Award at the prestigious Africa Tech Alliance Forum.
The award recognised his role in using technological innovation to tackle complex challenges in healthcare and his broader impact on job creation and capacity development in Africa’s tech ecosystem.
According to Adedamola, “Healthcare isn’t just about medicine; it’s about systems. When systems fail, people suffer. Our goal with Pay1One is to create intelligent systems that work seamlessly for everyone: the patient, the provider, and the policymakers.”
From Nigeria to the world
With a strong foundation built in Nigeria, Pay1One is now setting its sights on a global stage. They recently expanded to the United Kingdom, aiming to enhance existing healthcare services with solutions like remote consultations and medication delivery.
The team believes that lessons learnt in resource-constrained environments like Nigeria can be valuable in optimising global health systems facing rising costs and growing patient demand.
As the world adapts to the realities of healthcare after the pandemic, platforms like Pay1One are proving that meaningful, sustainable innovation often starts at the local level. The partnership with Oyo State, UCH and LUTH isn’t just another health-tech partnership; it’s a model for how collaboration between the public and private sectors, powered by data and technology, can deliver fair and accessible healthcare in developing nations and beyond.
In a sector that has long struggled with inefficiencies, Pay1One is showing that with the right vision and determined action, even the most complex problems can be solved and lives can be truly transformed.
Adedamola Bowale is the co-founder and technical lead at Pay1One.
